179. There are levels of love and wisdom, consequent levels of warmth and light, and also levels of atmosphere. Without a knowledge that there are levels, what they are and what they are like, what is to follow will be incomprehensible, since there are levels in everything that has been created; therefore they exist in every form. Consequently, I need to discuss levels in this part of Angelic Wisdom.

We can tell clearly from the angels of the three heavens that there are levels of love and wisdom. Angels of the third heaven so surpass angels of the second heaven in love and wisdom, and these in turn so surpass angels of the farthest heaven, that they cannot live in the same place. Their levels of love and wisdom mark them off and separate them. This is why angels of the lower heavens cannot climb up to angels of the higher heavens, and why if they are allowed to climb up they do not see anyone or anything around them. The reason they do not see anyone is that the love and wisdom of the higher angels is on a higher level, a level beyond their perception. Every angel actually is her or his love and wisdom; and love together with wisdom is human in form because God, who is love itself and wisdom itself, is human.

Occasionally I have been allowed to see angels of the farthest heaven go up to angels of the third heaven. When they managed to get there, I heard them complain that they could not see anyone; and yet they were surrounded by angels. They were afterwards told that these angels had been invisible to them because they could not perceive their love and wisdom, and it is love and wisdom that give angels their human appearance.

319. That the gentiles equally with Christians are saved, anyone can see who knows what it is that makes heaven in man; for heaven is within a man, and those who have heaven within them come into heaven. Heaven in a man is acknowledging the Divine and being led by the Divine. The first and chief thing of every religion is to acknowledge the Divine. A religion that does not acknowledge the Divine is not a religion. The precepts of every religion look to worship, thus to the way in which the Divine is to be worshipped that the worship may be acceptable to Him; and when this has been settled in one's mind, that is, so far as one wills this or so far as he loves it, to that extent he is led by the Lord. Everyone knows that the gentiles as well as Christians live a moral life, and many of them a better life than Christians. Moral life may be lived either for the sake of the Divine or for the sake of men in the world; and a moral life that is lived for the sake of the Divine is a spiritual life. In outward form the two appear alike, but in inward form they are entirely different; the one saves a man, the other does not. For he who lives a moral life for the sake of the Divine is led by the Divine; while he who leads a moral life for the sake of men in the world is led by himself.

[2] But this may be illustrated by an example. He who refrains from doing evil to his neighbour because it is contrary to religion, that is, contrary to the Divine, refrains from doing evil from a spiritual motive; but he who refrains from doing evil to another merely from fear of the law, or the loss of reputation, of honour, or gain, that is, for the sake of self and the world, refrains from doing evil from a natural motive, and is led by himself. The life of the latter is natural, that of the former is spiritual. A man whose moral life is spiritual has heaven within himself, but he whose moral life is merely natural does not have heaven within himself; and for the reason that heaven flows in from above and opens man's interiors, and through his interiors flows into his exteriors; while the world flows in from beneath and opens the exteriors but not the interiors. For there can be no flowing in from the natural world into the spiritual, but only from the spiritual world into the natural; therefore if heaven is not received at the same time, the interiors remain closed. From these things it can be seen who those are who receive heaven within them, and who do not.

[3] And yet heaven is not the same in one as in another. It differs in each one in accordance with his affection for good and thence for truth. Those who are in an affection for good for the sake of the Divine, love Divine Truth, since good and truth love each other and desire to be conjoined. ¹ This explains why the heathen, although they are not in genuine truths in the world, yet from love receive truths in the other life.

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9206. 'And your wives will become widows' means that forms of good with them will perish. This is clear from the meaning of 'wives' (mulier) as forms of good, dealt with in 6014, 8337, the reason why they mean forms of good being that the marriage of a man (vir) and a woman (mulier) represents truth and good joined together ('a man' means truth, and 'a woman' good, see 4510, 4823); and from the meaning of 'widows' as those who have good but not truths, and still have a desire for truths, 9198. But those who have no desire for truths are meant here, since the evil who afflict widows are the subject. So it is that 'widows' is used here to mean those with whom forms of good perish.

[2] The situation is that the good of people who have good but no desire for truth is not real good, because truths are what make good real good. For good receives its specific quality from truths, see 9154. Good joined to truth is what is meant by spiritual good; therefore when truth perishes with a person, so too does good, and conversely when good perishes, so too does truth. For the bond between them is severed and dissolved, see 3804, 4149, 4301, 4302, 5835, 6917, 7835, 8349, 8356. Consequently good is recognized from this, that it has a desire and an affection for truth for the sake of good and useful service, thus for life's sake. Regarded in itself, the actual desire or affection for truth for life's sake is an affection for being joined to it. It is like food or bread that desires water or wine for the sake of combining with it; for combined with each other they provide nourishment. It is also like heat and light. Light combined with heat causes all things on the planet to spring forth and grow up; but if the combination is dissolved that which has sprung forth and grown up dies.

[3] As it is with good, so it is with all delight, pleasantness, sweetness, agreement, and harmony; these joys are such not of themselves but by virtue of the things they hold within them. Good and truth joined together make them such and determine their specific character. But what it is within them that has connection with good and what with truth is something that people who have understanding may recognize if they ponder on the matter; for everything whatever in the world, and everything whatever in heaven, thus in the whole of creation, has connection with good and with truth. Everything that has sprung forth from them has connection with both at the same time, thus with both joined together. This explains why all things were likened by the ancients to marriages, see 54, 55, 1432, 5194, 7022, and why every detail of the Word has the marriage of goodness and truth within it, 683, 793, 801, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339 (end).