18. Het Goddelijke van de Heer in de hemel is liefde, want liefde is het reservoir van alle hemelse dingen, zoals vrede, intelligentie, wijsheid, en gelukzaligheid. Liefde is ontvankelijk voor alles wat met haar harmonieert. Zij verlangt ernaar, zoekt ernaar, neemt het als het ware uit eigen beweging in zich op, want zij wil constant daardoor verrijkt en vervolmaakt worden. Dit is uiteraard de mens algemeen bekend, want bij hem werpt liefde als het ware een blik in de voorraden van zijn geheugen en put daaruit alles wat harmonieert, verzamelt en schikt dit in en onder zich. In zich, zodat ze van haar zijn, en onder zich, opdat zij haar van dienst zijn. Al het overige echter dat niet overeenstemt, verwerpt en verbant zij. Het is overduidelijk aangetoond door sommigen die in de hemel werden opgenomen, dat in liefde ieder vermogen aanwezig is om de ware dingen op te nemen die met haar harmoniëren en het verlangen om ze met zich te verbinden. Alhoewel zij in de wereld eenvoudigen van geest waren geweest, kwamen ze bij de engelen in de wijsheid van engelen en in de gelukzaligheid van de hemel. Dit was omdat zij het goede en het ware hadden liefgehad ter wille van het goede en het ware zelf en deze in hun leven hadden ingeplant, en daardoor in staat waren de hemel aan te nemen met alle onbeschrijfelijke dingen daar. Maar zij die in eigenliefde en liefde van de wereld verkeren, hebben niet het vermogen om deze dingen op te nemen; daar hebben ze een afkeer van en ze verwerpen ze en zodra ze deze aanraken en influx ontvangen, vluchten zij weg en zoeken het gezelschap op van hen die in de hel zijn met dezelfde liefden als zij. Er waren geesten die betwijfelden of de hemelse liefde zulke vermogens in zich had en zij verlangden te weten of het zo was. Zij werden daarom in een staat van hemelse liefde gebracht, met allerlei belemmeringen tijdelijk verwijderd. Toen werden zij een zekere afstand naar voren gebracht waar een engelenhemel was en daarvandaan spraken ze met mij en zeiden dat ze een innerlijke gelukzaligheid gewaar werden die zij niet onder woorden konden brengen en dat zij het ten zeerste betreurden dat zij in hun vorige staat terug zouden keren. Anderen werden ook in de hemel opgenomen en hoe meer innerlijk of hoger zij werden verheven, hoe meer ze in intelligentie en wijsheid werden gebracht, zodat zij dingen gewaar konden worden die daarvoor onbegrijpelijk voor hen waren geweest. Daaruit blijkt dat de liefde die uit de Heer voortgaat, het reservoir is van de hemel en alles wat daarin is.

106. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

Heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, and the other the spiritual kingdom; the love in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, and is called celestial love; and the love in the spiritual kingdom is love towards the neighbor, or charity, and is called spiritual love (n. 3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961). Heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, see the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 20-28); and the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him, and charity towards the neighbor (n. 13-19 in the same).

It cannot be known what good is and what truth is, unless it be known what love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor are, because all good is of love, and all truth is of good (n. 7255, 7366). To know truths, to will truths, and to be affected with them for the sake of truths, that is, because they are truths, is charity (n. 3876-3877). Charity consists in an internal affection of doing truth, and not in an external affection without an internal one (n. 2429, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8033). Thus charity consists in performing uses for the sake of uses (n. 7038, 8253). Charity is the spiritual life of man (n. 7081). The whole Word is the doctrine of love and charity (n. 6632, 7262). It is not known at this day what charity is (n. 2417, 3398, 4776, 6632). Nevertheless man may know from the light of his own reason, that love and charity make the man (n. 3957, 6273). Also that good and truth agree together, and that one is of the other, and so also love and faith (n. 7627).

The Lord is the neighbor in the highest sense, because He is to be loved above all things; and hence all is the neighbor which is from Him, and in which he is, thus good and truth (n. 2425, 3419 , 6706 , 6819 , 6823, 8124). The distinction of neighbor is according to the quality of good, thus according to the presence of the Lord (n. 6707-6710). Every man and every society, also our country and the church, and, in the universal sense, the kingdom of the Lord, are the neighbor, and to do good to them according to the quality of their state from the love of good, is to love the neighbor; thus the neighbor is their good, which is to be consulted (n. 6818-6824, 8123). Civil good, which is justice, and moral good, which is the good of life in society, and is called sincerity, are also the neighbor (n. 2915, 4730, 8120-8122). To love the neighbor does not consist in loving his person, but in loving that with him from which he is, consequently good and truth (n. 5028, 10336). They who love the person, and not that which is with him from which he is, love evil as well as good (n. 3820). And they do good to the evil as well as to the good, when nevertheless doing good to the evil is doing evil to the good, which is not loving the neighbor (n. 3820, 6703, 8120). The judge who punishes the evil that they may be amended, and that the good may not be contaminated by them, loves the neighbor (n. 3820, 8120-8121).

To love the neighbor is to do what is good, just, and right, in every work and in every office (n. 8120-8122). Hence charity towards the neighbor extends itself to each and every thing which man thinks, wills, and does (n. 8124). To do what is good and true is to love the neighbor (n. 10310, 10336). They who do this love the Lord, who in the highest sense is the neighbor (n. 9210). The life of charity is a life according to the commandments of the Lord; and to live according to Divine truths is to love the Lord (n. 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645).

Genuine charity is not meritorious (n. 2027, 2343, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). Because it is from internal affection, consequently from the delight of the life of doing good (n. 2373, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). They who separate faith from charity, in another life hold faith and the good works which they have done in the external form as meritorious (n. 2373). They who are in evils from the love of self or the love of the world, do not know what it is to do good without remuneration, thus what that charity is which is not meritorious (n. 8037).

The doctrine of the Ancient Church was the doctrine of life, which is the doctrine of charity (n. 2385, 2417, 3419-3420, 4844, 6628). Thence they had intelligence and wisdom (n. 2417, 6629, 7259-7262). Intelligence and wisdom increase immensely in the other life with those who have lived a life of charity in the world (n. 1941, 5859). The Lord flows in with Divine truth into charity, because into the essential life of man (n. 2063). The man with whom charity and faith are conjoined is like a garden; but like a desert with whom they are not conjoined (n. 7626). Man recedes from wisdom in proportion as he recedes from charity; and they who are not in charity, are in ignorance concerning Divine truths, however wise they think themselves (n. 2417, 2435). The angelic life consists in performing the goods of charity, which are uses (n. 454). The spiritual angels, who are they that are in the good of charity, are forms of charity (n. 553, 3804, 4735).

All spiritual truths regard charity as their beginning and end (n. 4353). The doctrinals of the church effect nothing unless they regard charity as their end (n. 2049, 2116).

The presence of the Lord with men and angels is according to their state of love and charity (n. 549, 904). Charity is the image of God (n. 1013). Love to the Lord, consequently the Lord, is within charity, although man does not know it (n. 2227, 5066-5067). They who live a life of charity are accepted as citizens both in the world and in heaven (n. 1121). The good of charity is not to be violated (n. 2359).

They who are not in charity cannot acknowledge and worship the Lord except from hypocrisy (n. 2132, 4424, 9833). The forms of hatred and of charity cannot exist together (n. 1860).