selves were of the same nature, however good they may have been in their outward form. Accordingly Swedenborg says:
But by the deeds and works according to which man is judged, are not meant such deeds and works as are merely exhibited in the external form, but such also as they are internally; for every one knows that every deed and work proceeds from man's will and thought; for if it were otherwise, his deed would be mere motion, like that of an automaton or image. Wherefore a deed or work in itself considered, is nothing but an effect which derives its soul and life from the will and thought, so that it is will and thought in effect, therefore will and thought in an external form. Hence it follows that such as are the will and thought which produce a deed or work, such also is the deed or work. If the thought and will be good, the deeds and works are good; but if the thought and will be evil, the deeds and works are evil, although outwardly they may appear alike."—H. H, n. 472.
But our life's love cannot be speedily changed. We cannot quickly pass from hell to heaven, or from a supremely selfish which is an infernal state, to the opposite or unselfish state which is heavenly. This great change, like all orderly divine processes, is slow and gradual. Accordingly Swedenborg says:
"Man, when he is born, as to hereditary evils is a hell in the least form; and also becomes a hell, so far as he takes from hereditary evils and superadds to them his own. Hence it is that the order of his life from nativity and from actual life, is opposite to the order of heaven; for from the proprium he loves himself more than the Lord, and the world more than heaven; when yet the life of heaven consists in loving the Lord above
