104. By Means of the Word, There Is Light Even for People Who Are outside the Church and Do Not Have the Word

THERE can be no union with heaven unless somewhere on our planet there is a church where the Word is present and the Lord is known by means of it. This is because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and there is no salvation apart from the Lord.

It is adequate if there is simply a church where the Word is present even though that church may consist of relatively few people. Even so, by means of it the Lord is present everywhere in the whole world, because by means of it heaven is united with the human race. As for the union being by means of the Word, see §§62-69 above.

48. VI. THE DUTCH IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

I said above (20) that the Christians among whom the Word is read and the Lord is worshipped are in the middle of the nations and peoples of the whole spiritual world, because they enjoy the strongest spiritual light, and it spreads its illumination as it extends to all the surrounding areas up to the outermost. This is as reported in (THE TEACHING ABOUT THE SACRED SCRIPTURE 104-113). The Reformed Christians have been allotted places in this centre depending on how they receive spiritual light from the Lord. Since the British have this light stored up in their intellectual faculty, they are in the inmost part of the centre. Since the Dutch have that light very closely connected with their natural enlightenment, so that among them the light has not such a snow-white brilliance, but instead a non-transparent quality which allows them to reason from spiritual light and spiritual heat as well, they have been given dwellings in the Christian heartland in the east and south, in the east because of their ability to receive spiritual heat, which gives them charity, in the south because of their ability to receive spiritual light, which gives them faith.

[2] Compass-points in the spiritual world are not like those in the natural world, and the location of dwellings depends on how faith and love are received, those in the east excelling in love and charity, those in the south excelling in intelligence and faith; on this see (HEAVEN AND HELL 141-153). Another reason why they occupy those quarters of the Christian heartland is that the aim of their love is directed to trading and to money as the means to that aim, and this is a spiritual love. But where the aim of love is money, and trading a means to that aim, it is a natural love, being tainted with greed. The Dutch above others have the spiritual love just mentioned; regarded in itself it is a shared good containing and advancing the good of their native country.