136. Like people on earth, angels have discernment and volition. Heaven's light produces their cognitive life because heaven's light is divine truth and the divine wisdom that comes from it; while heaven's warmth produces their volitional life because heaven's warmth is the divine good and the divine love that comes from it. The quintessential life of angels is from the warmth, but not from the light except to the extent that there is warmth in it. We can see that life comes from the warmth because when the warmth is taken away life dies. It is the same for faith without love or for truth without goodness, since the truth that is attributed to faith is light and the goodness that is attributed to love is warmth. ¹

All this becomes even clearer from the warmth and light of our world, to which heaven's warmth and light correspond. From the warmth of our world, united to its light, all things on earth come to life and blossom. They are united in spring and summer. However, nothing comes to life or blooms from light separated from warmth - everything languishes and dies. They are disunited in winter, when the warmth is gone but the light remains. It is from this correspondence that heaven is called a paradise, because there the true is united to the good, or faith to love, as light is united to warmth in springtime on earth.

This gives even clearer support to the truth discussed above in 13-19, that the Lord's divine nature in heaven is love for him and thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor.

Footnotes:

3732. 'Jacob made a vow, saying' means a state of Providence. This is clear from the meaning of 'making a vow' in the internal sense as wishing the Lord to provide; and therefore in the highest sense, in which the Lord is the subject, a state of Providence is meant. The reason why in the internal sense 'making a vow' means wishing the Lord to provide is that present within vows there is a desire and affection that what is wished for may come about, thus that the Lord may provide it. Within them something of a bargain is present, and at the same time on man's part something of a bounden duty to keep his side of it, should he obtain his desire. This was the case with Jacob, in that Jehovah was to be his God, and the stone which he placed as a pillar was to be God's house, and he would devote a tenth of everything He had given him, if Jehovah guarded him on the road, gave him bread to eat and clothing to wear, and he went back in peace to his father's house. From this it is evident that the vows made in those times were particular agreements, involving primarily men's acknowledgement of God as their God if He provided them with what they desired, and involving also their repayment to Him with some gift if He did provide it.

[2] That state of affairs shows quite clearly what the fathers of the Jewish nation were like. They were like Jacob here, who did not as yet acknowledge Jehovah and was still at the stage of choosing whether to acknowledge Him or some other as his own God. It was a special feature of that nation, even of their fathers, that everyone wished to have his own God; and anyone who worshipped Jehovah worshipped Him merely as some god called Jehovah, the name which distinguished Him from the gods of other nations. Accordingly their worship even in this respect was idolatrous, for the worship of the name only, even of Jehovah's, is nothing but idolatrous, 1094. This is like people who call themselves Christians and say that they worship Christ, but do not live according to His commandments. They worship Him in an idolatrous way since they worship only His name, it being a false Christ whom they worship; reference to that false Christ is made in Matthew 24:23-24 - see 3010.