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} In the Word “fire” signifies heavenly love and infernal love (n. 934, 4906, 5215).  “Holy and heavenly fire” signifies Divine love, and every affection that belongs to that love (n. 934, 6314, 6832).  “Light” from fire signifies truth going forth from good of love; and light in heaven signifies Divine truth (n. 3195, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 9548, 9684).

14.  The Divine in heaven which makes heaven is love, because love is spiritual conjunction.  It conjoins angels to the Lord and conjoins them to one another, so conjoining them that in the Lord’s sight they are all as one.  Moreover, love is the very being [esse] of everyone’s life; consequently from love both angels and men have life.  Everyone who reflects can know that the inmost vitality of man is from love, since he grows warm from the presence of love and cold from its absence, and when deprived of it he dies.{1} But it is to be remembered that the quality of his love is what determines the quality of each one’s life.

  {Footnote 1} Love is the fire of life, and life itself is
  actually therefrom (n. 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314).

15.  In heaven there are two distinct loves, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, in the inmost or third heaven love to the Lord, in the second or middle heaven love towards the neighbor.  They both go forth from the Lord, and they both make heaven.  How these two loves are distinct and how they are conjoined is seen in heaven in clear light, but in the world only obscurely.  In heaven loving the Lord does not mean loving Him in respect to His person, but it means loving the good that is from Him; and to love good is to will and do good from love; and to love the neighbor does not mean loving a companion in respect to his person, but loving the truth that is from the Word; and to love truth is to will and do it.  This makes clear that these two loves are distinct as good and truth are distinct, and that they are conjoined as good is conjoined with truth.{1} But this can scarcely be comprehended by men unless it is known what love is, what good is, and what the neighbor is.{2}

  {Footnote 1} To love the Lord and the neighbor is to live
  according to the Lord’s commandments (n. 10143, 10153, 10310,
  10578, 10648).

{Footnote 2} To love the neighbor is not to love the person, but to love that in him from which he is what he is, that is, his truth and good (n. 5028. 10336).  Those who love the person, and not that in him from which he is what he is, love evil and good alike (n. 3820).  Charity is willing truths and being affected by truths for the sake of truths (n. 3876, 3877).  Charity towards the neighbor is doing what is good, just, and right, in every work and in every function (n. 8120-8122).

16.  I have repeatedly talked with angels about this matter.  They were astonished, they said, that men of the church do not know that to love the

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