256. It has been said above, that "the seven churches," which are here written to, mean not seven churches, but all who are of the church, and in an abstract sense all things of the church. That this is so can be seen from this, that "seven" signifies all persons and all things, and that by names things are meant. That the things written to these seven churches mean all who are of the church, or all things of the church, can be seen also from the explanation of all the things written to them. For all things of the church have reference to these four ¹ generals, namely, Doctrine: A life according to doctrine: Faith according to life: these three are treated of in what is written to six of the churches; Doctrine, in what is written to the churches in Ephesus and Smyrna; a life according to doctrine, in what is written to the churches in Thyatira and Sardis; and Faith according to life, in what is written to the churches in Philadelphia and Laodicea; and since doctrine cannot be implanted in the life and come to be of faith unless man combats against the evils and falsities, which he has by heredity, that combat also is treated of in what is written to the church in Pergamos; for there Temptations are treated of, and temptations are combats against evils and falsities. (That temptations are there treated of, see above, n. 130; that doctrine is treated of in what is written to the churches in Ephesus and Smyrna, see above, n. 93, 95, 112; that a life according to doctrine is treated of in what is written to the churches in Thyatira and Sardis, n. 150, 182; and that faith according to life is treated of in what is written to the churches in Philadelphia and Laodicea, n. 203 and 227.) Since what is written to this last church, that in Laodicea, treats of those who are in the doctrine of faith alone, and near the end treats also of the faith of charity, it should be added to what has been said, that love makes heaven, and because it makes heaven it also makes the church; for all the societies of heaven, and they are innumerable, as well as all within each society, are arranged according to the affections of love; so that it is affection or love according to which all things are arranged in the heavens, and not one person has his place according to faith. Spiritual affection or love is charity; it is evident, therefore, that no one can ever enter heaven if he is not in charity.

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93. The angel of the Ephesian church is the first here written to; and by the angel of that church all those in the church are meant who are in the knowledges of truth and good, thus in the knowledges of such things as are of heaven and of the church, and who still are not, or not yet, in a life according to them. By these knowledges are especially meant doctrinals; but doctrinals alone, or the knowledges of truth and good alone, do not make a man spiritual, but a life according to them; for doctrinals or knowledges without a life according to them abide only in the memory and thence in the thought, and all things that abide there only, abide in the natural man; consequently a man does not become spiritual until these enter the life, and they enter the life when a man wills the things which he thinks, and consequently does them.

That this is so anyone can see from this alone, that if anyone knows all the laws of moral and civil life, and does not live according to them, he still is not a moral and civil man; he may indeed talk about them more learnedly than others, but still he is rejected. It is the same with one who knows the ten precepts of the Decalogue, so as to be able even to explain and discourse about them with intelligence, and yet does not live according to them. Those, therefore, within the church who are in the knowledges of such things as pertain to the church, that is, who are in knowledges of truth and good from the Word, but are not, or not yet, in a life according to them, are here first treated of, and these are described by the things written to the angel of the Ephesian church.