Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/156

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the light of heaven; the way that turned to the right was broad and spacious, leading obliquely d^wn toward hell.

All seemed at first to go the same way, until they came to the great stone at the parting of the two ways; but when they arrived there, they were separated. The good turned to the left, and entered the strait way which led to heaven. But the evil did not see the stone at the parting of the ways, and therefore fell upon it and were hurt; and when they got up, they ran along the broad way to the right, which tended to hell.

It was afterwards explained to me what all those things signified. By the first way which was broad, in which many both good and bad walked along together, and conversed with each other like friends,—because no difference between them was apparent to the sight,—were represented those who in externals live alike sincerely and justly, and who cannot be distinguished by their appearance. By the stone at the parting or angle of the ways, upon which the evil stumbled, and from which they afterwards ran along the way leading to hell, was represented the divine truth, which is denied by those who look toward hell. In the supreme sense, by the same stone was signified the Divine Human of the Lord. But they who acknowledged the divine truth, and at the same time the Divine of the Lord, were conducted along the way which led to heaven.