In the spiritual body moreover, man appears such as he is with respect to love and faith, for everyone in the spiritual world is the effigy of his own love, not only as to the face and the body, but also as to the speech and the actions.

This statement reflects Swedenborg’s mature theological anthropology developed in his Latin theological works after his reported spiritual experiences beginning in the mid-1740s. In describing the “spiritual world” (heaven, hell, and the world of spirits), Swedenborg repeatedly argues that the afterlife is not an abstract state but a fully embodied mode of existence in which inner character becomes outwardly visible. The remark belongs to his broader effort to explain correspondences between inner affections (love) and outward forms, and to defend the idea that people freely gravitate after death to communities that match their ruling love, which then shapes their appearance, speech, and behavior.

Swedenborg is describing a core principle of his spiritual anthropology: in the afterlife, inner character becomes outward form. “Love and faith” are not merely private attitudes but the organizing forces of a person’s being; thus the “spiritual body” expresses what one truly wills and believes. The claim that each spirit is an “effigy” of his love extends beyond appearance to speech and conduct, implying a world where hypocrisy is impossible because externals transparently correspond to internals. The passage also underscores Swedenborg’s moral psychology: love (the ruling affection) shapes perception, communication, and action, so salvation or damnation is experienced as the natural unfolding of what one has made oneself to be.