The Divine Sphere of the Lord Constitutes Heaven

7. The angels taken collectively are called heaven because they constitute heaven; nevertheless it is {the Divine Sphere proceeding from the Lord which flows into the angels and is received by them} which constitutes heaven in general and in particular. The Divine Sphere proceeding from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith. In the degree, therefore, in which they receive good and truth from the Lord they are angels and they are heaven.

8. Every one in the heavens knows, believes and even perceives that he wills and does nothing good from himself, and that he thinks and believes nothing true from himself, but from the Divine Sphere alone and therefore from the Lord; and that the good and truth which are from himself are not good and truth at all because there is no life in them {} from the Divine source. The angels of the inmost heaven clearly perceive and feel the Divine influence; and their life seems heavenly to them only so far as they receive it{=Divine influence}; because to that extent they exist in love and faith, in the light of intelligence and wisdom and thence in heavenly joy. Since all these things proceed from the Divine Sphere of the Lord and the angels find in them their heaven, it is evident that heaven is constituted by the Divine Sphere and not by anything proper to the angels. Hence it is that heaven, in the Word, is called the habitation of the Lord, and His throne; and those who are in heaven are said to be in the Lord: but how the Divine Sphere proceeds from the Lord and fills heaven will be explained in what follows.

9. The angels in their wisdom go still further and say not only that everything good and true but also the very life of all things is from the Lord. This they confirm by the consideration that nothing can exist from itself, but only from something prior to itself; consequently that all things exist from the First Cause which they call the very Being of the life of all; and that they subsist in like manner, because subsistence is perpetual existence; and what is not continually kept in connexion with the First Cause by intermediates falls instantly to the ground and is utterly dissipated. They also say that there is only one Fountain of life, and that the life of man is a stream therefrom, which, if it were not continually supplied from its fountain, would instantly cease to flow. Again, they say that from this one Fountain of life, which is the Lord, nothing proceeds but Divine Good and Divine Truth, and that these affect every one according to his reception of them; those who receive them in faith and life find heaven in them; but those who reject or stifle the divine{Divine} Good and Divine Truth turn them into hell, because they turn good into evil, truth into falsity and thus life into death.

That the very life of all things is from the Lord, they also prove by the consideration that all things in the universe have reference to good and truth—the life of man’s will, which is the life of his love, has reference to good; and the life of man’s understanding, which is the life of his faith, has reference to truth. From this it follows that as everything good and true comes from above, so does the very life of all things. Since the angels believe this, they refuse all thanks for the good they do and are indignant and withdraw if any one attributes good to them. They wonder how any one can believe that he is wise from himself and does good from himself. Good done for the sake of self they do not call good, because it is done from self; but good done for the sake of good, they call good from the Divine Source, and say that this good constitutes heaven, because it is the Lord.

10. Spirits who, while they lived in the world, confirmed themselves in the belief, that the good they do and the truth they believe, are from themselves or are appropriated to them as their own—which is the belief of all those who place merit in good deeds and claim to themselves righteousness—are not received into heaven. The angels avoid them, regarding them as foolish and as thieves; as foolish, because they look continually to themselves, and not to the Divine Being; as thieves, because they take away from the Lord what is His. Such persons are opposed to the belief of heaven that the Divine Sphere of the Lord received by the Angels constitutes heaven.

11. The Lord teaches that those who are in heaven and in the church are in Him and He in them, when he says, “Abide in me and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruits; for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15. 4, 5).

12. From these considerations it should {follow} be evident that the Lord dwells with the angels of heaven in what is His own and therefore that the Lord is the All in all of heaven; for the Lord is present with the angels in the good which flows from Him, since what flows from Him is Himself; hence the angels of heaven find their heaven in the good which flows from the Lord and not in anything of their own.


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- !) Good and Truth vs. Love and Faith; good as to love and truth as to faith; the good of love and the truth of faith; cf. Divine Good and Divine Truth vs. Divine Love (not Divine Faith); - !) Divine Good(天德); Divine Truth(天理); so far as “天” not confined to the sky as opposed to the earth, nor to the big universe as opposed to the earth as a planet which is so small a particle in the former; as stated in “三一神誥”: “蒼蒼非天 玄玄非天 天 無形質 無端倪 無上下四方 虛虛空空 無不在 無不容”; and as stated also in “參佺戒經”, “第二事, 敬神(신)” : “日月星辰 風雨雷霆 是有形之天 無物不視 無聲不聽 是無形之天 無形之天 謂之天之天 天之天 卽天神也 人不敬天 天不應人 如草木之不經雨露霜雪”; further as stated in “第四事, 崇德”: “天德者 甘霖於旱土 陽春於陰谷之類也 造次之間 苟未有天德 人而不爲人 物而不爲物 是以 哲人 孜孜 頌天德”- !) the ‘Divine influence’ coming from ‘Divine Sphere’