Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

  {Footnote 1} Innumerable things are contained in love, and love
  gathers to itself all things that are in harmony with it (n.
  2500, 2572, 3078, 3189, 6323, 7490, 7750).

19.  That love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor include in themselves all Divine truths is made evident by what the Lord Himself said of these two loves: 

Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And the second, like unto it, is, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40).

“The law and the prophets” are the whole Word, thus all Divine truth.

20.  IV.  Heaven is divided into two kingdoms.

As there are infinite varieties in heaven, and no one society nor any one angel is exactly like any other,{1} there are in heaven general, specific, and particular divisions.  The general division is into two kingdoms, the specific into three heavens, and the particular into innumerable societies.  Each of these will be treated of in what follows.  The general division is said to be into kingdoms, because heaven is called “the kingdom of God.”

{Footnote 1} There is infinite variety, and nowhere any thing the same as another (n. 7236, 9002).  Also in the heavens there is infinite variety (n. 684, 690, 3744, 5598, 7236).  Varieties in heaven are varieties of good (n. 3744, 4005, 7236, 7833, 7836, 9002).  All societies in the heavens, and all angels in a society, are thereby distinguished from each other (n. 690, 3241, 3519, 3804, 3986, 4067, 4149, 4263, 7236, 7833, 7836).  Nevertheless they are all made one by love from the Lord (n. 457, 3986).

21.  There are angels that receive more interiorly the Divine that goes forth from the Lord, and others that receive it less interiorly; the former are called celestial angels, and the latter spiritual angels.  Because of this difference heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one called the Celestial Kingdom, the other the Spiritual Kingdom.{1}

{Footnote 1} Heaven as a whole is divided into two kingdoms, a celestial kingdom and a spiritual kingdom (n. 3887, 4138).  The angels of the celestial kingdom receive the Divine of the lord in their voluntary part, thus more interiorly than the spiritual angels, who receive it in their intellectual part (n. 5113, 6367, 8521, 9936, 9995, 10124).

22.  As the angels that constitute the celestial kingdom receive the Divine of the Lord more interiorly they are called interior and also higher angels; and for the same reason the heavens that they constitute are called interior and higher heavens.{1} They are called higher and lower, because these terms designate what is interior and what is exterior.{2}

  {Footnote 1} The heavens that constitute the celestial kingdom
  are called higher while those that constitute the spiritual
  kingdom are called lower (n. 10068).

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Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.